The invention relates to network access restrictions. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatuses for limiting the levels of access away from a trusted network resource.
In many situations, organizations, such as schools and public libraries, desire to provide network access to many individuals having many different needs. This access is typically the Internet; however, access to other networks can also be provided. In certain environments, such as schools and public libraries, many of the individuals that desire network access are minors, and it is desirable to provide somewhat restricted access to the network (e.g., no access to pornographic World Wide Web sites).
Many schemes have been developed to provide acceptable restricted access to networks. Typical network restriction schemes include user name and password access restriction and/or approved/restricted resource lists. User name and password schemes require a user to provide an authorized user name and password to access network resources (e.g., a World Wide Web page, an audio file, a text document). However, user name and password schemes can be easily defeated if an authorized user provides his/her authorized user name and password to others.
Approved/restricted resource list schemes maintain an approved list and/or a restricted list that list approved network resources and restricted network resources, respectively. In order for a user to have access to a particular network resource, the resource must be included in the approved list and/or not included in the restricted list, depending on how the access scheme is implemented. However, with large, constantly changing networks such as the World Wide Web, maintaining access and/or restricted lists for multiple users generally does not provide a satisfactory network access experience for users and is difficult and time consuming to maintain for network access providers.
What is needed in an improved scheme for restricting access to network resources.
Methods and apparatuses for level-based network access restriction are described. A browser or other application determines whether an electronic document is a trusted electronic document. Access to further electronic documents is limited to a predetermined number of levels away from the trusted electronic document. In one embodiment, access to the further electronic documents is accomplished via electronic links. Further access is denied if the electronic document is not a trusted electronic document.